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EPISODE DESCRIPTION
In 1871 Ranald “Bad Hand” Mackenzie sends Lt. Robert Carter and the 4th Cavalry on a hunt for the Comanche following the brutal Salt Creek Massacre. But the Hunters soon find themselves being the hunted in the notorious Western Battle of Blanco Canyon.
Like a lot of my videos this is not the story I intended to tell when I started my research. I wanted to investigate the reasons for the power shift that took place in Comancheria between the high point of Comanche Power in the 1840s to when they were forced to reservation in 1874. Some features stuck out to me like weaponry and how technology made soldiers better equipped to fight the fast moving Comanche. The killing of the Buffalo destroyed their food source and left tribes of the Plains starving and in need of rations. But the biggest problem I found was that of population. White Americans numbered in the millions and the Comanche had a population under 10,000. Why did the United States not just solve their problem with overwhelming force?
The Battle of Blanco Canyon gave me my answer. Political will send enough troops into the region was lacking prior to an uptick of raids in the early 1870s but was sent over the top with the Kiowa led Salt Creek Massacre in 1871. When General William T. Sherman sent Ranald Mackenzie and the 4th Cavalry into Comancheria to bring the most notorious Comanche Band, the Quahadi, into reservation they assumed that their superior numbers and weaponry would win them the day. But the incredible Comanche and the untamed Geography of the High Plains had different Ideas and soon the 4th Cavalry found themselves in the same trouble as their predecessors who dared take on the Comanche. Surviving in the wolf’s den was going to be more difficult than they ever could have imagined.
EPISODE CHAPTERS
00:00 Comanche Hunt
02:15 The Salt Creek Massacre
07:42 The Quahadi and the High Plains
11:51 The Night Raid | Tragedy 1
16:02 Death in the Canyon | Tragedy 2
21:05 Losing the Comanche | Tragedy 3
24:57 The “Norther” | Tragedy 4
REFERENCES
The Apache and Comanche: The History and Legacy of the Southwest’s Most Famous Warrior Tribes. Charles River Editors (book)
Bad Hand: A Biography of General Ronald S. Mackenzie by Charles M. Robinson (Book)
Empire of the Summer Moon by SC Gywnne (Book)
The Last Days of the Comanches
By S.C. Gywnne
Texas Monthly
https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/last-days-of-the-comanches/
On the Border with Mackenzie: or, Winning West Texas by Capt. R. G. Carter (Book)
President Ulysses S. Grant and Federal Indian Policy
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/president-ulysses-s-grant-and-federal-indian-policy.htm
Study: Mass slaughter of buffalo caused lasting economic and social shocks for tribes including Standing Rock Sioux
https://www.wctrib.com/news/study-mass-slaughter-of-buffalo-caused-lasting-economic-and-social-shocks-for-tribes-including-standing-rock-sioux#:~:text=Tribes%20that%20suffered%20an%20abrupt,termed%20%E2%80%9Cnon%2Dtrivial.%E2%80%9D
Understanding the Origins of American Gun Culture Can Help Reframe Today’s Gun Debate BY JIM RASENBERGER
https://time.com/5842494/colt-gun-debate-history/
The West Texas Frontier by Joseph Carroll McConnell
https://www.forttours.com/pages/warren.asp